May 2011

May 18, 2011

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he likes what he's hearing about quarterback Tony Romo and several of the Cowboys veterans leading player-run workouts during the lockout.

He said there a lot of positives that could come of it, especially in terms of fostering leadership and team chemistry.

"I think it’s a real opportunity in a way baring this issue, for our players to take a proprietary interest on initiating the type of preparation that’s usually supervised by coaching," Jones said.

"We talk about leadership and basic implementing of the responsibility that goes with organizing preparation as well as executing preparation. I think that’s a good thing. I think there could be some positives from that of initiating by the players these workouts, as opposed to be supervised by the coaches, there could be some positives from that as far as looking ahead to the season.

"Now, that’s looking at it through rose-colored glasses. Let’s try to find some good here. That effort on our players' part is a good thing to go ahead and get organized, and we’re working in a time of year where this is the least activity you have with teams.

"And we’re going into the latter part of May and June when players are off, so I think under the circumstances for them to be organizing and working is a good thing."

Jones said he doesn't worry about the players getting injured in the supervised workouts because he thinks they will look out for themselves and each other. He said the veterans will look out for players like receiver Dez Bryant, who missed the last month of the season with a broken ankle and has yet to be cleared by team doctors for full workouts.

"I think that his teammates when they see each other making the investment that they’re making, it's very important that a player, not just come out and make a play," Jones said. "It’s very important that he’s invested himself in a lot of work with his teammates.

"That’s why you have the success, when you have a real team concept. And so what goes with that, though, is a certain amount of player responsibility with their teammates to say, 'Hey, let's take it a little easy. We know you’re coming off an injury, so let’s help each other work through the eventual rehab process.' "

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said his focus and the league's focus is working toward a bargained agreement with the players.

He downplayed the court-ordered mediation and the recent rulings by the court of appeals upholding the lockout.

Jones said he felt frustrated for the fans and believes best thing for the players and the league is to strike a deal talking face to face.

"I do know this, that ultimately it’s going to be resolved by a collectively bargained deal, which means talking," Jones said. " I know that there are certain planned talks, but that doesn’t preclude having other talks and communications.

"I think this ultimately won’t necessarily be resolved through something a court will dictate, such as that particular mediation. It’s ultimately going to be resolved in formal or informal bargaining and communication. I don’t get hung up on, ‘well, they don’t have a talk scheduled for this time or a talk scheduled that time.' There’s nothing inordinate about picking up the phone and just talking directly to someone you’re talking with.’’

Well, is that happening?

“Again, I’m not going to get into that," Jones said. "I couldn’t and wouldn’t. I’m precluded from doing that. But ultimately it’s going to get resolved by talking and bargaining head-to-head, not through a court system, not through something that has been directed by the court, but at the end of the day which the courts are encouraging us to do, which is sit down and work it out.

"If ultimately that is going to be the way to do it, then it’s not necessarily going to take traditional forms of big conferences and structured conferences. It doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.’’

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is hoping for the best and perhaps getting a labor deal in place in time for training camp and a full season.

But the facts are that any hopes of having a true offseason program and regular organized team activities are over. With nothing being decided in court until June, the same can probably be said of any possible minicamps.

Jones says the Cowboys are taking it one day at a time but acknowledged they are looking at how to prepare for a season based on an lockout extended into training camp and possibly the start of the regular season.

"I don't have that point in time as to a date that this doesn't call for that," Jones said. "You play this on a week by week, month by month, day by day basis. There is no point in having deadlines because you have to think what happens if you don’t make the deadline. But you get up the next morning and go forward. We are going to have football. We are going to have a great league. We are going to have a great group of players. That is going to happen. This train is going to get there; I just want to be on it."

Jones however declined to promise that the train was going to get there in time for the start of training camp or the start of the regular season.

"The train will get there," Jones said. "That is the attitude everybody should have. Whether or not, or how and when....we want to do it in a way that doesn’t impact our fans negatively if we can. But we certainly know that to some degree you can have too long of a camp and you can have too short of one too. We will have to figure that out. I do know this we have got some tentative looks to see how to have our season and how to have it with a prolonged lockout here."

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has hopes for a new season but says owners have to do what's best for the league. To that end, he said any talk about doing away with the draft won't fly. The same goes for proposals that impact practice and preparation.

"I think we all recognize the benefit that a draft plays and so I think that’s one point that we don’t want to compromise -- those concepts relative to how talent is distributed," Jones said. "But that’s an example [of some of the proposals we don't like]... Of how we practice, some of the things we do in practices, some of the requirements we have of the veteran players – I think when you start looking at things in those areas, the team concept, we would be better served if that is dictated by the coaches and dictated by their needs to put the best team on the field as opposed to something that is a labor proposal."

While the NFL and several teams are instituting layoffs and pay reductions due to the labor impasse, owner Jerry Jones says the Cowboys do not plan any layoffs or pay cuts due to the lockout. He said the Cowboys are a year-round organization because of the events held at the $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, and operations are business as usual.

"We, for all practical purposes, the Cowboys, are year-round for 99 percent of the employees that we have," Jones said. "And certainly we have an obligation to our stadium and the events that we’re involved in. When you look at the big picture, our operation and what we’re doing with our employees is more dictated by that than it is by the fact that we’re locked out. Our hiring will be influenced by the normal things that influence our hiring, the normal turnover that you might have in employment as well as what we might have as to the labor need that is there. And to some degree, we have hired employees and we also replaced employees. We’re having a pretty normal offseason relative to our hiring."

May 16, 2011

It was a given that Everson Walls, who gave a kidney to prolong Ron Springs' life, would speak at Springs' funeral. But Roger Staubach said he also will speak Thursday.

"I had the '79 season with Ron," Staubach said Monday. "He had some great games. He was a heck of an athlete, a really good player. He played behind Tony [Dorsett], and Tony got hurt at the end of the year, and we beat the Redskins [35-34 after being down 34-14], and he and Preston Pearson had great games. On that last touchdown, I remember jumping into his arms. Everybody was amazed. I never did that before.

"He's really a fine human being. God rest his soul right now. His wife asked me to say a few words, and I was the old guy when he was a rookie. He and I had a good relationship."

Springs died Thursday after almost four years in a coma. He was 54.

He had received a kidney from Walls in March 2007.

Springs played for the Cowboys from 1979-84. His last two years in the league were spent with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He rushed for 2,519 yards, had 2,259 receiving yards and scored 28 touchdowns in his career.

A wake for Springs is set for Wednesday from 5-8 p.m. at Sparkman-Hillcrest Funeral Home in Dallas. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Covenant Church in Carrollton.

He will never be in the Cowboys' Ring of Honor, but ex-Cowboy Drew Bledsoe is the Patriots' newest inductee into their Hall of Fame. Bledsoe, the No.1 overall pick of the Patriots in 1993, spent the first nine years of his career in New England before being injured and replaced by Tom Brady. (The rest, as they say, is history.) Bledsoe finished his career in Dallas in 2005-06, replaced by Tony Romo six games into the 2006 season.

Bledsoe learned of the honor Monday morning. The Patriots will induct him in September.

"Obviously, this is a tremendous honor, to be elected to the Patriots Hall of Fame," Bledsoe said. "It was a little overwhelming this morning to receive the call from Mr. [Robert] Kraft –- honestly a little more emotional than I thought it would have been. Just to be considered in the company of Bill Parcells and Houston Antwine was a great honor in and of itself. And then to be elected to the hall of fame was really a tremendous honor. I’m really looking forward to getting back there in September and [it is] obviously a great honor. It means a lot to me and a lot to my family."

Bledsoe said he has not talked to Parcells since leaving the Cowboys in 2006, Bledsoe's last year in the NFL.

Roger Staubach has been where Tony Romo is now, so he understands the scrutiny that goes with being America's Quarterback. At the same time, the Hall of Famer has a hard time explaining why Romo's leadership skills have been questioned.

"I think people should keep examining what he has done," Staubach said Monday. "This guy has done unbelievable. He's right at the top in the NFL as far as a quarterback -- as far as his statistics and the things he does. I'm mystified, because it's not our quarterback that is the problem in Dallas. We've got a Super Bowl quarterback. I really believe that the league is so close in parity, and Dallas is the kind of team with Jason [Garrett] that they can be right there in the thick of it this year. Last year, the Green Bay Packers were almost out of it. They lose 11 players [to injury], and yet they got that momentum going. Dallas is right there, and they have the quarterback that can do it. I'm hoping this is our year."

Romo is 39-22 in the regular season as a starter but only 1-3 in the postseason. He has been criticized outside of the organization for playing too much golf in the off-season, and some critics have questioned whether he has turned into the "celebrity quarterback" that Bill Parcells warned against.

But Romo has drawn praise during the lockout for his work in putting together player-only workouts. He was asked last week whether it was a "step in leadership or a natural maturity" that had led him to organize the workouts. He side-stepped the question, saying, "I think we have a lockout right now, and our team needs to get better at football, and the only way to do that is to get out and play football. The more ways we can do that, the more ways it helps our football team."

Staubach said Romo has been the leader of the Cowboys since the day Romo made his first start in 2006.

"He has been a leader," Staubach said. "He's a fierce competitor. They talk about him playing golf. I mean, he works out. He's with his team during the season. He's one heck of a football player, and I don't understand it. I think he's been a leader. You know, you mature as you get experience at that position. The players believe in him; they like him.

"Look at what he's done. He's accomplished a lot. The guy has really been a heck of a football player. He hasn't been the problem. Now, I hope they're resolving some of their problems and helping him."

Rookie free agents perhaps are the most affected by the lockout. Players like TCU receiver Bart Johnson, Texas A&M center Matt Allen, Arkansas tackle Ray Dominguez, Nebraska kicker Adi Kunalic, Ohio State receiver Dane Sanzenbacher and Delaware quarterback Pat Devlin weren't drafted and can't be signed until the lockout ends. Because of that, their chances of making a roster are reduced.

"That’s one of the disappointing things about the lockout has been a number of players have dreams and aspirations of being drafted in the NFL," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Monday. "For a lot of those guys, that doesn’t happen, but soon after the draft they’ve signed with a team. They say, ‘OK, that didn’t happen for me, but at least I know I’m going somewhere; here, we go.’ Unfortunately for that group of players, that hasn’t happened this year. They’re in a holding pattern. It’s going to require some mental toughness and some patience for them to understand what the situation is and then when they get their chance to make the most of it. We’re no different than anybody else. It’s happening to other teams around the league."

The Cowboys have had great success at finding diamonds in the rough. Tony Romo and Miles Austin both were undrafted free agents. They had 20 undrafted free agents on their roster last season, with Barry Church, Phil Costa, Chris Gronkowski and Danny McCray making the team out of training camp.

Garrett said the Cowboys have their list of priority rookie free agents ready to go as soon as the lockout ends.

"It’s really the same list that we would have after the draft, a number of guys that we’ve considered drafting and for whatever reason we didn’t and now you go to this next priority free agent list," Garrett said. "It usually happens two or three hours after the draft. It’s been a little extended this year."

Jason Garrett, who was honored Monday at the 2011 Pat Summerall Humble Beginnings Awards Luncheon, said he has plenty of things to keep him busy during the lockout. He would rather be working with the players in organized team activities, but instead is getting organized and prepared for the players' return... whenever that may be.

"What we have been trying to do as coaches is try to get everything ready for them when they do come back," Garrett said. "It starts with putting structure together for the off-season, for training camp, and then we have to be able to adjust that structure once we find out what the rules are. So we are still in a little bit of a holding pattern. But we are trying to get some stuff cleaned up from last year and get stuff ready for this year and go forward when the players come back."

Though Garrett can't have any contact with his players, the Cowboys coach has been keeping up with them through the media. The Cowboys have had some 40 players regularly show up for player-only, on-field workouts, according to Tony Romo.

"I think that’s a natural progression for a lot of teams in this league to have guys get together," Garrett said. "This is when you start to play a little football, and you start getting to the middle of May is typically what our players are doing. So, for them to get together and throw it a little bit is probably a natural thing and a good thing."